WITH the housing policies meant to cool down the real estate market and the coming of the Chinese New Year, landlords in Shenzhen are suffering a low season for home renting, and some have had to lower their rent to attract tenants, sznews.com reported.

    The research center of Centaline Property disclosed that the average home rent had reached its lowest point of the whole year in November with an average rent of 69.8 yuan (US$10.04) per square meter, and the rent in October and November had dropped by 6 percent from September.

    The center analyzed the rental market and suggested that the market was both greatly affected by the housing policies and seasonally by the coming holiday. There is little possibility that rent will hike soon, according to the center.

    A landlord in Futian District, surnamed Xu, was concerned about renting his apartment recently. After his previous tenant left the apartment, Xu asked a real estate agency to rent out his apartment, but not many people showed interest.

    “My two-room apartment is located near Liyuan Primary School, which has been popular among parents whose children want to attend the school, but there haven’t been many potential tenants interested in renting my apartment recently,” said Xu.

    The landlord had to lower the rent from 6,800 yuan to 6,300 yuan and eventually rented out the apartment.

    The online rental market also appears to be inactive and many landlords have had to lower their rent in order to make deals. A person in charge of Centaline’s pre-owned properties section said that the end of each year is the off-peak season. The market might not revive until the end of the Chinese New Year holiday.

    The research center of Midland Reality also suggested that there had been an increasing number of vacant rental apartments appearing in Shenzhen, so tenants had more choices than before. The research center estimated that more rental apartments with higher rent will be available in the rental market after the holiday. (Zhang Qian)